Finances for me have been a little wild, I got a credit card at 18 and went crazy then when I got to university the banks was offering overdrafts, more credit cards and then after university they offer loans and more credits cards. They wasn’t all explained to me and explained that it probably wasn’t a good idea to accept everything and spend spend spend but we live and learn. That’s my story anyway... 

The Giff Gaff Game Plan is offering a place on the Internet where you can keep track of your finances, credit score, money saving offers and budgets. Having all these things in one place makes it so much easier and it's great to have more information to hand when it’s truly needed. 

The game plan was all explained to us at the event in a presentation style workshop. The Giff Gaff member went through how the game plan came about, what’s it about and how useful it can be. I was impressed to find that Giff Gaff have listened to its members to create this place for your financial needs. I also learnt I know hardly anything about my credit score and how it’s used, measured and took into consideration. Sometimes we need more information on the things we should of learnt in school and didn’t and in a place we can trust that’s easily accessible. The Giff Gaff Game Plan is the place and I truly believe it’s a helpful tool especially for us younger ones but will also help anyone who wants to keep track of their finances, check their credit score, budgeting, look for suitable money options and it’s all in one place! 

The rest of the event took up the theme of saving money through home cooking, crafting and recycling but first came lunch. Lunch was beautiful and the hotel really put on a wide selection of foods from sandwiches, salads and light bites; there was also veggie options. Dessert was gorgeous too, a full chocolate pudding and we could help ourselves to wine or soft drinks throughout. It was lovely to eat a nice lunch in such a beautiful building; it was like an afternoon of luxury... how do I live this life I asked myself :) 

The cooking workshop was ran by Herb and Spice Catering who made a Vegan Mediterranean dish within a short time. Made with a few ingredients and some chopping of vegetables and just like magic there was a restaurant style meal. We of course got to eat the food after the workshop and even though we just had lunch I was pleased to taste the new flavours, spices and textures. The dish was delicious and it really wasn’t too hard to make, we came away with the recipe to try the dish at home ourselves. It was very fascinating to watch someone cook and move around the kitchen station. 

Moving onto the next workshop which was kinda my favourite of the day, jewellery making! What I didn’t expect was to create a necklace using an old t-shirt! Yes we used old t-shirts cut up into long pieces of stretchy string like pieces to make a necklace. The process was shown to us by Tea and Crafting and we was led through the whole process. The necklace is made by finger knitting which I picked up quite quickly and have been doing this at home since the event. I even made a second necklace whilst at the event as I was getting pretty quick with the process. The necklaces which can also be worn as a hair band have a festival like theme to them in my opinion and I'll be sure to take mine with me to the festivals I’m attending this year. This is another way to save money to recycle an old t-shirt into something new or you could make these necklaces as gifts for friends and family. 

Finally the last part of the event was the Clothes Swap, we’d been asked to bring along up to 3 items to be in the clothes swap. If your unfamiliar with how a clothes swap works, well you bring along items, these are usually ranked into categories; clothing, coats, shoes and bags/accessories. This is so you don’t go away with items not worth your items basically and makes the swap a little more fair in my opinion. I brought along a dress from New Look, a River Island hat and a Zara t-shirt, all had only been worn a few times and the Zara tee was actually brand new. I was afraid that there wouldn’t be anything for me take away as a lot of the other bloggers was smaller sizes than me but I found a lovely bag with a bee on it and a Pretty Little Thing dress. I feel like the Clothes Swap was a success and I think the Giff Gaff members was happy with how it went too. Again this is another way to recycle and save money, get your friends together and host a clothes swap at your house or organise one in your home town. Any items left over would go to a charity shop and again be recycled and you'd support a good cause. 

So although this was a little bit of a different event for me I had a really good day and learnt a lot about the Game Plan and how to save money in other ways. It’s an important subject and I think we all should take our finances seriously!